Weekend Vacation: This is The Place State Park

It was time for another mini weekend vacation+1. This year we decided to try something new and visit This Is The Place State Park. It has been years since either Dave or I have visited the monument. One of our zoo trips we parked in their parking lot and thought this would be a fun place to visit. After checking it out on the internet it would be a perfect day trip. Our +1 Day on Friday was set to go. The day started really early for Dave & the kids as they caught the early flight @ 6:18am to meet me in Salt Lake. After a quick breakfast we were off with a promise to the kids if we got done early we would play at the zoo also.

Main Street

Petting the ox.

She was so fascinated by all the animals and constantly touching them. However, she was mostly fascinated by the tail and wanted to stand behind them. The pioneers were constantly reminding her not to stand to close. Lucky for her nothing happened.

Pioneer Chores...Milking a cow.

Doing the laundry.

Panning for gold...fools gold that is.

The Tiny Train ride.

Pioneer crafts, flour sacks, yarn bracelets.

This is the Place Monument

Wow, we were there all day. There was still so much to see. We hit all the crafts and demonstrations. It was a great place to visit and might become a must do. The kids were so excited to have grandma come and play.

Everyone was tired and wanted to cool off and swim.

Pine Valley Camping Trip

The day finally arrived for our camping trip with the Wheelers to Pine Valley. It was a great time to leave the valley and head to the mountains. All week it was so humid with scattered rain shower that the cool mountain air was a relief. The kids were excited to be outside and play without anyone telling them to get out of the dirt. The only thing we had to watch for was other campers driving by.

Ryder and his trucks.

Reganne & Dacoda listening to the radio and dancing.

Dinner time with hot dogs and hamburgers.

We had a few showers while getting the food ready.

Blake, Dacoda, and Dave...Roasting Marshmellows.

What campout would be complete if you didn't roast marshmellows and try to make smores.

Rylee & her smore.... word of warning don't use the jumbo ones unless you want alot of marshmellow mess.

Reganne trying to catch butterflies.

Ryder... I don't want my pants to get wet.

Everyone hiked down to the small lake, played in the water, and scared away the fish. We had a great time and survived the rain. Everyone was talking about next years campout. That means the trip was a sucess.

Summer Vacation...The Zoo

One of the best parts of summer vacation is taking our mini vacations. This weekend was our first one to the zoo. Our first adventure was getting on a flight to Salt Lake. This was our first time flying out of the new airport. It is such a beautiful building everyone just walked around checking everything out. Too bad it was the last flight of the night and the smaller 30 seat plane and not the jet.

Look at all the new stuff.

It was a late night by the time we made it Grandma & Grandpa's house for a quick visit and off to bed. Dave & I were up early to meet Brandon & Kim for a temple session at the Jordan River Temple for Grandma Waters temple work. Lucky for us that we have a great grandma that drove the kids to the zoo to meet us.

Let the zoo adventures begin....

Grandma JeanAnn, Rylee, and Dave on the Zoo Train.


Elephants eating hay and watching the mama feed her baby. Wow! what a big baby.

A tiger looking down at the crowd or was he looking for lunch?

Rylee relaxing by the monkeys.

Look how big we are..... Together

Annual zoo picture and they were too busy to pose.